Richard Fuller wins second term as Kalamazoo County sheriff

Special to MLive/Erik HolladayKalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller talks with Grace Borgfjord Tuesday at the Cityscape Events Center in downtown Kalamazoo where local Democrats gathered to watch as election results came in. Fuller won a second term Tuesday, defeating Republican challenger Ward Lawrence.

This time around, though, the result was not the same as incumbent Democrat Richard Fuller easily won a second term in office, defeating his challenger, Republican Ward Lawrence.

With 105 of 113 precincts reporting late Tuesday in Kalamazoo County, Fuller had 55 percent of the vote.

According to unofficial totals, Fuller was ahead with 49,610 votes to Lawrence's 39,883 votes.

"I’m very excited," Fuller said late Tuesday night. "This means a lot. We’re going to be able go forward."

In winning re-election, Fuller, 48, maintains the reins of an agency in need of more personnel for its road patrol while facing dwindling budgets in the face of declining revenue for the county.

On the horizon, too, is the opening of the Kalamazoo County Jail expansion.

On the campaign trail this fall, Fuller said he and his undsheriff, Pali Matyas, had worked hard in Fuller's previous term to maintain police and jail services while being faced with declining budgets. He also said he has worked hard to save the sheriff's office money through several efforts, most notably joining with other local police agencies to form a countywide SWAT team and ongoing efforts to form a central dispatch for his agency, Kalamazoo Public Safety, Portage Public Safety and the Kalamazoo Township Police Department.

Asked what he thought lead to his victory Tuesday, Fuller said: "I think it was the fact that people understand that I’ve been the sheriff for the last four years. Any learning curve … has been overcome by me and I have great working relationships with all of the cities and all the townships.

... I look forward to making sure we continue these relationships and we go up from here."

Lawrence, 52, a sergeant and 18-year veteran of the sheriff's office, had told voters over the last few months that Fuller's administration had lost the faith of the agency's deputies' union while, at the same time, coming in over budget two of the last four years.

On Tuesday, Fuller said of Lawrence, "We're going to work well together and I'm just excited."

Lawrence's bid to take over the sheriff's office had been endorsed by former sheriff's Thomas Edmonds and Michael Anderson. Fuller defeated Anderson, the Republican incumbent, soundly in 2008 to become the first Democrat elected sheriff in the county since 1934.